Mumbai blasts case: Death for 2, Abu Salem gets life imprisonment

Mumbai blasts case: Death for 2, Abu Salem gets life imprisonment

Mumbai – September 7

Extradited gangster Abu Salem was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment even as two of his co-conspirators, Tahir Merchant and Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, were awarded the death penalty for their role in carrying out the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts.A fourth convict, Karimullah Khan, has been awarded a life sentence while a fifth, Riyaz Siddiqui, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.Mustafa Dossa, who along with Salem, was one of the masterminds of the blasts, died of a heart attack in jail on June 28 shortly after being found guilty.The blasts on March 13, 1993, left 257 people dead across Mumbai.Judge GA Sanap of the special Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) court announced the sentences today after the prosecution had asked the court to award a life sentence for Salem.Abu Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 after the Indian government gave an undertaking to that country that he would not be awarded the death penalty if he was found guilty.Gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, who were found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bomb blasts, are believed to be hiding in Pakistan while Yakub Memon who was nabbed by Indian agencies in Nepal was hanged for his role in the blasts.The trials of Salem and other conspirators were separated from the others as they had been arrested much later.April 19, 1995: First leg of trial commencesSept 18, 2002: Abu Salem detained in Lisbon, PortugalMarch 20, 2003: Accused Mustafa Dossa arrested by CBI at IGI Airport, New Delhi, on his arrival from DubaiSept 2003: Main trial ends. TADA court in Mumbai reserves judgmentJan 9, 2004: Charges framed against DossaNov 11, 2005: Salem extradited to IndiaDec 9, 2005: Charges framed against SalemJune 13, 2006: Abu Salem’s trial separatedSept 12, 2006: TADA court judge PD Kode starts delivering the judgment, pronounces four members of the Memon family guilty, and acquits three. Later, 12 convicts were awarded death penalty while 20 were given life sentence. Other convicts were handed over different sentencesFeb 2007: Main trial concludes. Second leg involving seven accused beginsMar 16, 2013: Sanjay Dutt surrenders before court after SC upholds convictionMarch 21, 2013: Supreme Court upholds death sentence of convict Yakub Memon, brother of Tiger Memon, and commutes death sentence of 10 convicts to life term. Life imprisonment of 16 out of 18 convicts also upheldAugust 13, 2013: TADA court drops certain charges againt Salem which violated the extradition treaty with PortugalJuly 30, 2015: Key conspirator and lone death row convict in the case, Yakub Memon, hanged.Dec 7, 2015: Final arguments of the second phase of the trial startJune 8, 2016: Court rejects plea of accused Firoz Abdul Rashid in which he said he wanted to become an approver